Wednesday, March 14, 2007

"The National Association of Evangelicals has endorsed an anti-torture statement saying the United States has crossed "boundaries of what is legally and morally permissible" in its treatment of detainees and war prisoners in the fight against terror.

Human rights violations committed in the name of preventing terrorist attacks have made the country look hypocritical to the Muslim world, the document states. Christians have an obligation rooted in Scripture to help Americans "regain our moral clarity."..."

As I pointed out in an earlier posting, evangelical Christians have historically taken the lead in issues of justice and compassion. And yet, while their giving patterns have exceeded many other groups in their generosity toward those in need, their public image has been one of withdrawal from the secular world and a strict focus on spiritual matters. Personally I feel this is incorrect, but stereotypes, wrong though they may be, often have a grain of truth buried in all the chaff. The NAE is to be commended for their courage in taking on such issues as part of their Christian witness.

Issues of justice, human rights and compassion are not issues that belong to one side or another in our "sectarian" political debates. These are issues in which Christians are required to speak boldly (as well as truthfully) to power:

1Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees,

2to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.

-- Isaiah 10:1-2

And Micah 6:8 should always be before us. We are "To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God".

Withdrawing from the world and ignoring the problems around us is not an option that God has offered us.